Urban: Type of City

 

Some people claim that some cities are boring because they have a smaller variety of goods and services than other cities of equal size. Give an example of this type of city and explain why.

Cities have a critical role in economic growth as its offer economies of scale, agglomeration, and localisation, as well as efficient facilities and public services. Cities are epicentres of human activity, boosting the flow of information and interactions.  However,some people claim that some cities are boring because they have a smaller variety of goods and services than other cities of equal size.  This situation may happen due to the certain factors in that area.

One of the factors is area.  We may compare between Shah Alam and Kuala Terengganu as an example of the State Capital to describe this factor.  Shah Alam has the largest population in the state of 508,688 people, compared to Kuala Terengganu, 301, 065 residents.  However, some people stated that Shah Alam is the boring city as it does not have the variety of the services and goods.  This may be true.  Although Shah Alam has the largest population, the distance between Petaling Jaya to Shah Alam is just 5.6 miles.  Petaling Jaya become a satellite township for Kuala Lumpur in the sense that the massive industrial demand has prompted the development of economic activities in Petaling Jaya.  Hence, most of the economic activities happen in Petaling Jaya than Shah Alam although Shah Alam is the State Capital of Selangor.  Most of the people who lives in Shah Alam would rather to travel and built the career in Petaling Jaya as it offers more job opportunities.    Hence, there would be more residents in Petaling Jaya.  This situation would mean variety goods and services have been offered in Petaling Jaya compared to Shah Alam.  They would prefer to buy goods and use services there since the distance to the capital city is not that far. Not to mention, as urban cities, Kuala Lumpur or Petaling Jaya provides variety of goods and services.  For instance, in Shah Alam, people always been limited to choose e-hailing services.  However, in Petaling Jaya, people always have a choice to choose e-hailing car services according to their preferences.  Since more potential customers in Petaling Jaya, variety of e-hailing firms always concentrate in that area.  In addition, in Petaling Jaya, their citizens also have a choice to choose e-hailing van service that offers ride as low as RM1 throughout Petaling Jaya areas.  Hence, people would have other choice to choose e-hailing services that offers low price. 

If we compared to Kuala Terengganu, the distance to Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur is about 282 miles.  The distance is too far for people to commute.  Hence, most people would rather enliven economic activities in Kuala Terengganu.  Thus, Kuala Terengganu become people attraction.  Over time, due to the collective demand and preferences, they tend to have affordable, better and variety of goods and services.  For example, food vendors always compete among them to sell cheap and variety of goods to attract customers.  Hence, people do not have to travel far to big cities like Kuala Lumpur to buy certain goods since there are vendors who sell the same thing here.  As economic activities centered in Kuala Terengganu, e-hailing services become popular and flourish.  Hence, e-hailing firms would invest more in Kuala Terengganu and expand its coverage there.  So, people would have more choice to use e-hailing services from different companies.  Since it becomes more competitive, they would offer their best services to the customers to increase their engagement and to gain trust and loyalty form the customers.

To conclude, even though the size of the city is the same, it would not determine the variety of goods and services provided at that city.  Other factors like population and area of the city play a great role in making a city attractive and desirable.